Crews battling wildfires ravaging southern California for a week have managed to slow the spread of the worst of the blazes, officials said Tuesday, as residents were taking stock of the catastrophic damage. Evacuation orders were in place for threatened areas in the Santa Barbara region about 160 kilometers (100 miles) northwest of Los Angeles. In the past day or so, the blaze figure has grown by around a thousand hectares.

By David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered on Tuesday to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions, backing away from U.S. demands that Pyongyang must first accept that any negotiations would have to be about giving up its nuclear arsenal. "Let's just meet," Tillerson said in a speech to Washington's Atlantic Council think tank, presenting a new diplomatic overture amid heightened tensions over North Korea's nuclear and missile advances and harsh rhetoric between the two sides.

The New York bomb suspect wrote "Trump you failed to protect your nation" on Facebook before heading to a busy transit hub to set off a pipe bomb, prosecutors said on Tuesday. Akayed Ullah, from Bangladesh, has been charged with providing material support to terrorists and using weapons of mass destruction, following the failed suicide bomb attack on Monday. The 27-year-old was arrested after setting off a pipe bomb strapped to his body at one of New York's busiest commuter hubs which left four other people injured. He later told police that he carried out the attack "for the Islamic State (Isil)," according to court papers filed by federal prosecutors....

Slow-flying unmanned aerial vehicles that could extend the distance at which Growler crews can pinpoint enemy radars. Northrop Grumman is trying to convince the U.S. Navy to transform the branch's EA-18G Growler electronic-warfare planes into motherships for small, slow-flying unmanned aerial vehicles that could extend the distance at which Growler crews can pinpoint enemy radars.

A new species of semi-aquatic dinosaurs that could kill prey on land and in water has been discovered by scientists, researchers said Wednesday. The swan-necked and flipper-forelimbed creature was related to velociraptors -- made famous by the "Jurassic Park" films -- and lived about 75 million years ago, in what is now Mongolia. "You have to imagine a mix between a velociraptor, an ostrich and a swan, with a nose of a crocodile and the wings of a penguin," said Paul Tafforeau, a paleontologist at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, and co-author of the study.

Whatever the missile, a 932-mile range gives it the ability-just barely-to strike the Iranian capital of Tehran, as well as the holy city of Qom and the northern city of Tabriz, from a position off the coast of Syria. Israel's submarine corps is a tiny force with a big open secret: in all likelihood, it is armed with nuclear weapons. The five Dolphin-class submarines represent an ace in the hole for Israel, the ultimate guarantor of the country's security, ensuring that if attacked with nukes, the tiny nation can strike back in kind.

President Donald Trump's administration has taken aim at yet another workplace regulation put in place by the Obama White House, this time seeking to undo a protection for restaurant servers that annoyed the industry's lobby.

Iran on Thursday brushed off suggestions it should curb its reach in the Middle East and denied accusations of meddling, saying it was "going nowhere". Iran and Saudi Arabia are engaged in a regional battle for dominance being fought by proxies in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and other countries -- a tussle which has drawn in the West. "The aim of the US administration is to get Iran out of Syria," Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said during the third edition of the Rome Med conference in the Italian capital.

The Future Toyota Adventure Concept, or FT-AC, is a conceptual reminder to the car-buying public that SUVs can be driven off-road and can be used for adventure and exploration as well as the drive to work. "FT-AC is perfect for those outdoor enthusiasts who want to dial up the adventure on their weekend getaways," said Jack Hollis, group vice president and general manager, Toyota division. It also has underbody skid plates, proper LED and fog lighting for traveling in the dead of night and even boasts infrared cameras in the door mirrors for complete peace of mind when heading off the trail in the complete unknown.

The US said it was "deeply concerned" Friday after Pakistan freed one of the suspected masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai attacks despite months of pressure from Washington over militancy. The statement came as firebrand cleric Hafiz Saeed, who heads the UN-listed terrorist group Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and has a $10 million US bounty on his head, led prayers and met with supporters in Lahore Friday after his midnight release. JuD, which has operated freely across Pakistan and is popular for its charity work, is considered by the US and India to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the militant group blamed for the attack on India's financial capital.

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia is about to end its military operation in Syria that tipped the scales in the devastating war in favor of government forces, President Vladimir Putin said at surprise talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

A retired police officer, who refused help to care for his dementia stricken wife, suffocated her in the bedroom of their bungalow, a court has heard. But Douglas Addison, 88, is not in the dock to answer the charges, because he too is suffering from dementia and has been deemed too ill to stand trial. Instead a jury at Exeter Crown Court is hearing a trial of facts to determine if Mr Addison committed the acts of which he is accused. Anna Vigers QC, prosecuting, said Mr Addison had rejected help for his frail wife, Avis, and turned away carers. The court heard the couple had been married for decades and walked around their village holdings hands. Mr Addison was described as a proud man...

By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korean women are deprived of education and job opportunities and are often subjected to violence at home and sexual assault in the workplace, a U.N. human rights panel said on Monday. After a regular review of Pyongyang's record, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women also voiced concern at rape or mistreatment of women in detention especially those repatriated after fleeing abroad. North Korean women are "under-represented or disadvantaged" in tertiary education, the judiciary, security and police forces and leadership and managerial positions "in all non-traditional areas of work", the panel of independent...

An Israeli cabinet minister said on Sunday that Israel had covert ties with "many" Arab and Muslim states but was obliged not to name them at the other sides' request. A rare interview given by the head of Israel's armed forces to a Saudi-owned news site was published on Thursday, further fuelling talk of close links. It followed previous broad hints by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and accusations by Hezbollah that Saudi Arabia was pushing Israel to attack the Lebanese Shiite group.

It's double Trump trouble in a London underground parking garage when the president's sons meet up with Kate McKinnon's Julian Assange for an episode of "The Mueller Files" on the cold open of "Saturday Night Live."

CAIRO (AP) - Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, for the second time in as many days, delivered on Saturday a stern warning to Ethiopia over a dam it is building after the two countries along with Sudan failed to approve a study on its potential effects.

After shaking up the auto world with its electric cars, Tesla is tackling a new frontier in "green" transportation with the unveiling of a futuristic all-electric semi truck. Elon Musk, the South African-born inventor and entrepreneur, showcased the new vehicle Thursday in Hawthorne, California, site of Tesla's design bureau and the headquarters of the billionaire's aerospace company SpaceX. With a sleek, aerodynamic profile, the Tesla Semi is billed as quicker and more economical than today's diesel-powered trucks.

A Palestinian rammed his car into two Israeli civilians in the occupied West Bank Friday before trying to stab soldiers and being shot, the Israeli army said. In a statement the army said the attacker drove his car into the two Israelis near the Gush Etzion junction in the southern West Bank, leaving them both injured. A spokeswoman for the hospital said the Palestinian was 17 and in critical condition.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called Venezuela "an increasingly violent narco-state" that threatens the world, speaking Monday at an informal Security Council meeting on the South American nation that was boycotted by Russia, China, Egypt and Bolivia.